BY MATT BRADY    
Washington Bureau — NU Online News Service, June 12, 2008, 5:07 p.m. EDT

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland today signed into law a bill that was written in an effort to root out stranger-originated life insurance.

The new amendments to Ohio insurance law “recognize a shared responsibility of the life settlement industry, life insurance companies and the [insurance] department to protect consumers against STOLI transactions,” says Mary Jo Hudson, director of the Ohio Department of Insurance.

The bill, H.B. 404, officially amends the state Viatical Settlement Act. Under the new law, the department will have more authority over life settlements, and life settlement brokers and providers are required to give insurers more information before engaging in a life settlement.

Life insurers will have to ask specific questions aimed at uncovering STOLI schemes and report suspected schemes to the department.

The Ohio law also limits the ability of consumers who use certain types of premium financing arrangements to sell life insurance policies within 5 years of buying the policies.

(more…)

“Certain steps have to be done,” such as the underwriting and evaluating of a policy, noted Scott Kirby, co-president of business development and compliance issues for Orlando-based Advanced Settlements LLC.

But there are things an advisor can do to minimize the time a settlement process takes, he added. Providing a complete file and application to a life settlement broker is an example. If documents are missing, or even if they are just not current enough, “that slows the process down.”

There are a few reasons why files come in with incomplete or old data, he said. One is that “people want to travel down the path of least resistance” and try to get the settlement done with as little paperwork as possible. “It takes them a while to understand that we need as much information as possible,” he said.

Incomplete information can’t be fully evaluated by providers. According to Bryan Freeman, president of Habersham Funding, LLC in Atlanta, and one of the catches is that, as more and more pieces of information come in, they can trigger as many questions as they answer. “As they piecemeal that information to you, you see something you’ve never seen before and you have to ask about that,” he said.

By Matt Brady

Read more at http://www.settlementwatch.com/Pages/CustomView.aspx?ID=95

Among workers age 65+, both men and women at all age breakdowns showed double digit growth in the percentage that were working full-time between 1994 and 2007. The percentage of working women
who were working full-time increased by 35.3% for those ages 65-69 and 17.9% for those age 70+ over this time period. The increase was 27.7% for men age 65-69 and 16% for those age 70+.

Murray Gendell, Georgetown University
Older Workers Increasing Their Labor Force Participation and Hours of WorkEmployee Benefits Monthly Labor Review, Volume 131, Number 1 U.S Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics January 2008 http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/01/art3full.pdf

Guaranteed Minimum Accumulation Benefit (GMAB) Rider is now available on ING’s Variable Universal Life-CV.  The Guaranteed Minimum Accumulation Benefit (GMAB) Rider provides your clients with UNLIMITED UPSIDE POTENTIAL with downside risk protection.

When it comes to underwriting underwriter’s have a few tips to help you understand how controlled impairments are viewed - which in turn may help your life cases.

To underwriters, controlled impairments like the one’s below indicate positive factors:

• Later age of onset of disease
• Compliance, stability, regular medical follow-up
• Risk-factor modification/clinical stability and improvement

In addition, they consider a possible range of ranting:

• Most cancers unisurable within two to three years of diagnosis
• Most require flat extras in years two through six insurable
• If cancer was metastatic, most are not insurable within 10 years from end of treatment

Did you know that West Coast Life recently liberalized there underwriting stance regarding
MVRs & moving violations?

While two moving violations will still qualify for preferred at best, your applicants can now have three before being offered standard.  You may wonder what a few speeding tickets have to do with your client’s mortality.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people of every age from 2 through 34. A DUI/DWI or reckless driving charge in the past five years is still standard at best.

The annual index measures current costs for top-selling long-term care insurance policies that offer consumers approximately $115,000 in current benefits (base-level coverage), with protection increasing yearly as the individual ages. "That coverage will grow in value to over $305,000 of protection in 20 years," explains Jesse Slome, Executive Director of the national trade organization that conducted the research. The study compares costs for plans that provide benefits for 3-years or longer with an annual compound inflation option that increases the available insurance benefits by five percent compounded each year.

"The analysis highlights the benefits of obtaining coverage at younger ages and taking advantage of discounts offered to those in good health as well as to couples," Slome explains. "Someone seeking protection equal to today’s average cost of care, about $55,000, would pay $1,064 a year for a policy purchased at age 55," he notes. Costs for long-term care insurance are priced to remain level throughout the life of the policy, though this is not guaranteed. "If that same person waited until age 65 and no longer qualified for a preferred health discount, they would pay $3,221 yearly to obtain an equal level of future protection." That assumes policy costs do not increase over the next 10 year time period.

2008 premium survey rates provided by LTCI Partners, LLC, Chicago, IL

To All NAIFA-California Members:

Dateline NBC has been working on a project involving "unsuitable senior investments." 
The show will more than likely contain segments regarding annuity sales to seniors. 
While we don t know the exact content, we believe it is a good idea to watch the show. 
You may get questions from prospects and clients that have also watched.

Dateline NBC airs this Sunday, April 13 at 7:00 pm.

Proposed Insured (this information is incomplete on 32% of all cases received)

• Occupation and Duties
• Proposed Insured Earned Income
• US Citizen/Resident Alien
• Drivers License Number
• Subject to Back-up Withholding

EFT (incomplete on 25% of all cases)

• Account Owner Name and other EFT data

Beneficiary/Owner (incomplete on 23% of all cases)

• Owner SSN#/TIN
• Beneficiary Class
• Relationship of Beneficiary
• Type of Beneficiary Trust

Coverage (incomplete on 9% of all cases)

• Purpose of Insurance
• Existing Insurance Type and Amount

Replacement (incomplete on 5% of all cases)

• Do you have any information, other than stated in this application which indicates that any proposed insured may replace or change any current insurance or annuity in any company?
• Other Replacement Questions

Premiums (incomplete on 4% of all cases)

• Premium Payment Mode
• Source of initial/future premiums (incomplete on 1% of all cases)

Reinstatement

• Reinstatement Amount
• Reinstatement - Insurance company

According to a 2007 LIMRA report, 27 percent of households with an income of at least $75,000 said they would buy life insurance in the coming year.* However, past data shows us that only 12 percent of households actually purchased life insurance policies. Why didn’t the other 15 percent buy? Most likely because their agents didn’t call on them to inquire about purchasing insurance. When was the last time you asked your clients to buy? Or have you asked them if they know anyone you can help?

Increasing Use of Home Care in Long-Term Care Insurance Policies

The 2007 Society of Actuaries’ examination of claim experience from 1984-2004, under long-term care insurance policies, shows a significant change in the types of services received as compared with their 2002 report (claims experience 1984-2001). Nursing home only claims dropped from 80% of all claims in the 2002 report to 55% in the current one. Home care only claims increased from 15% in the earlier report to 26% in the current one, while claims with both nursing home and home care rose from 5% to 19% of all claims.
1984-2004 Long-Term Care Intercompany Study
Society of Actuaries
November 2007
http://www.soa.org/research/long-term-care/research-ltc-study-1984.aspx

Trends in Employer-Based Retirement Plans

The number of employment based defined benefit pension plans decreased from about 170,000 with approximately 29 million active participants in 1985 to about 47,000 plans with about 21 million active participants in 2003. Conversely, the number of defined contribution plans increased from over 460,000 with about 33 million active participants in 1985 to over 650,000 with approximately 52 million active participants in 2003.
Employer-Sponsored Health and Retirement Benefits; Efforts to Control Employer Costs and the Impact on Workers
GAOGAO –07-355
March 2007
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07355.pdf

Disability Rates Steadily Declining Among Older Americans

An analysis of data from the National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCNLTCNLTCS) revealed that the prevalence of chronic disability among Americans age 65+ decreased from 26.5% in 1982 to 19% in 2004/2005. Of note is the fact that the rate of decline in the prevalence of disability steadily accelerated over the course of the 22-year study period, going from a low of 0.6% in the years 1982-1984 to a high of 2.2% in the years 1999-2004/05.
Kenneth G. Manton, XiLiang Gu and Vicki L. Lamb
Changes in Chronic Disability from 1982 to 2004/2005 as Measured
by Long-Term Changes in Function and Health in the U.S. Elderly Population
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNANAS)
November 28, 2006
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/103/48/18374

401(k) Options: Encouraging Increased Participation and Saving

Findings from Hewitt’s 2007 Trends and Experience in 401(k) Plans survey indicate that automatic enrollment is on the rise, with the percentage of respondents automatically enrolling employees in their 401(k) plan almost doubling since 2005, going from 19% to 34% in 2007. Additionally, employers offering an automatic contribution increase option went from 9% in 2005 to 35% in 2007.
Trends and Experience in 401(k) Plans 2007
Hewitt Associates LLCLLC
November 2007
http://www.hewittassociates.com/_MetaBasicCMAssetCache_/Assets/Articles/401kHI07.pdf